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FSD 16-03 PNW Attendance Policy

November 2, 2016

PURDUE UNIVERSITY NORTHWEST FACULTY SENATE

Faculty Senate Document 16-03

Submission Date: 11/2/2016 (Student Affairs)

Senate Action and Date:

  • For Discussion, 11/11/2016.
  • For Action: 12/9/2016
  • Approved: 12/9/2016

TO: Faculty Senate
FROM: Student Affairs Committee

RE: Amendment to Student Attendance Policy: University recognized absences

WHEREAS: The Faculty Senate acknowledges that the instructor is the ultimate authority for the conduct of any course,

WHEREAS: The Faculty Senate acknowledges the value of student participation in University-related activities,

WHEREAS:WHEREAS: Attendance is essential for academic success and students remain responsible for completing assignments and evaluations as scheduled by instructors,

WHEREAS:WHEREAS: Students participating in academic, curricular, and extra-curricular activities sanctioned and sponsored by the University have occasional schedule conflicts with class meeting times,

THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED THAT:

  1. Instructors are under no obligation to excuse students from a class to attend a University recognized activity.
  2. As with any excused absence, students are responsible for completing any academic work required by an instructor as a condition of granting an absence for a University recognized activity.
  3. Students who wish to be excused from a class to attend a University recognized activity that occurs at the time of a class must submit an absentee request form to the instructor for approval to miss the class. The signed form should then be presented to the sponsoring program or department.
  4. Procedures for generating the absentee request form shall be as follows.
    • Any University program or department that wishes to schedule an activity for students that conflicts with any class attendance shall provide a list of the affected students and classes to the Provost’s office as soon as reasonably possible after finding out about the activity. The Provost’s office shall automatically certify as University recognized any request from a department under Academic Affairs; certification of requests from non-academic units shall be at the discretion of the Provost’s office.
    • For each activity it certifies as University recognized, and for each student and class affected, the Provost’s office shall generate an absence form for the student to present to the instructor of the class.
    • The form shall state that the instructor is under no obligation to grant the requested absence.
    • The form shall include a statement that the student is still responsible for completing any academic work required by the instructor as a condition of the excused absence.
    • The student must sign the form acknowledging the above facts before presenting it to the class instructor.
    • The instructor shall grant, grant with conditions, or deny the absence, sign the form, and give a copy to the student to present to the sponsoring program or department.
  5. If class time and a University activity have conflicting schedules, students cannot be penalized by the University activity authority for missing the University activity because they attend class. This shall apply in particular to students with athletic scholarships: participation in athletic practices and events shall always have lower precedence than attendance in class. As stated by the NCAA: “In the collegiate model of sports, the young men and women competing on the field or court are students first, athletes second.”

Approving:

  • A. Elmendorf (Chair)
  • M. Fathizadeh
  • Z. Jakubowski (SGA)
  • E. James
  • J. Kuhn
  • S. Rezak
  • M. Sida Diaz (SGA)<
  • L. Tan

Disapproving:

  • None

Absent:

  • T. Dobrowski
  • J. Spores